shed
by marymin
Summary: Mary is worried about something. Seto thinks she shouldn't be. Rated M


Something was wrong and off in the apartment.

Seto had been dully aware of this fact for days now, though he couldn't say when he began to notice it. He tamped down the edges of his mind, barricading his powers against the others' thoughts, determined not to eavesdrop on anyone's private troubles. But still the odd feeling persisted.

It hung over him like a thick cloud of smoke, and he found himself clinging to his siblings even more than usual, hovering over Kido while she made dinner or checking up on Kano when he left the house at night. But he didn't find the source of the discomfort until days later, and it turned out not to be coming from either of them at all.

He'd been curled up on the couch in Mary's room flipping idly through some cooking magazine Kido had left out rather pointedly, probably hoping one of them would help share the burden of making dinner every night. Mary, on the other hand, was hunched on her bed, a small blue book spread open across her knees. She was worrying her lower lip with her teeth, and when he glanced up, the sight was far more interesting than the delicious dishes on the pages in front of him.

It took him several seconds to realize that her eyes weren't moving, staring straight at the center of the book instead of scanning across lines of text. It wasn't odd at all for Mary to daydream, but paired with her tense expression...

Seto rolled to his feet, stretching and yawning loudly to catch her attention. It worked; she jumped in surprise, and her eyes shot up to catch his. Her lower lip was red and marked from where she'd been chewing it, and he paused mid-stretch.

"Hey, you okay?" he blurted. He'd been planning to say something cheerful to dispel the worried air, but the sight of her upset face had wiped all rational thought from his mind.

Mary didn't reply, looking down at the book in her hands and closing it slowly, her fingers trailing down the binding pensively. Seto puffed up his cheeks at the lack of response, sitting down on the edge of her bed and reaching out to take the book, his hand brushing hers.

She curled into herself a little tighter.

Seto wondered if she was sick. She'd gotten colds, once or twice, and they often made her grumpy and unsociable, especially to the other two. But with him, she'd always been open and honest.

"Mary-" he started, placing a hand on her shoulder, and she flinched.

The sudden motion caused a sharp pain in his chest, one he couldn't quite identify. If she was scared of him, he didn't know what he'd do.

As he stared at her in consternation, something else seemed odd to him. After a few seconds, Seto figured out what it was; Mary wore her favorite nightgown, but for some reason wore leggings under it. The ribbon she had wound around her wrist as a child was back as well, though it made more sense to say it was replaced with bandages that wrapped all the way from both wrists to her elbows, where the sleeves of her nightgown began. His forehead creased as he tried to figure out what was going on.

The bandages were what worried him most. Had she hurt herself, and he just hadn't noticed? He took her hand, lifting her arm to get a closer look, and her head jerked up, her eyes wildly searching to meet his.

Her eyes were bright with unshed tears, and while she didn't pull her arm out of his hand, she resisted him pulling it any closer.

"Please don't," she whispered, and there was so much hurt in her voice that Seto panicked. Though she'd asked him not to, he reached for the edge of the bandage. She fought him, trying to jerk her arm away, but the bandages had already fallen away enough to reveal a single dark shape on the pale skin of her wrist.

When she knew he'd seen it, Mary went still, hardly seeming to breathe. Seto couldn't tear his eyes from whatever it was. It seemed about the size of a fingernail, and it was shiny and black, flatter at one end than the other. Running the pads of his fingers across it revealed it to be raised and harder than skin. If anything, what it resembled was a scale.

As he pressed his finger against it, Mary made a sound like a sob, and he released her immediately.

"Crap, I'm sorry, Mary," he gasped. "...does it hurt?"

Mary shook her head, cradling her wrist to her chest. "It's just. It's gross. I didn't want you to see." Her voice was thick with tears and shame.

He could identify it now, what aura that had made him so uncomfortable lately. It had been self loathing, and it broke his heart to see how she turned away from him, trying to hide such a simple and normal part of herself.

"I think it's cute," he said suddenly, his cheeks heating up. He was neutral on scales, either way, but if they were Mary's scales then they were adorable by default. She glanced at him in surprise, a slight light of hope in her eyes. Gently now, he reached for her wrist again.

This time she let him unwind the rest of the bandage, revealing more scales. They were sparse around her wrist, growing thicker near her elbow until her soft skin was all but covered in the dark speckles. He wondered how many there were on her shoulders, then.

Seto knew she could feel his eyes on her by the way she shrank away. "Has this ever happened before?" Seto knew next to nothing about the illnesses and viruses a medusa could catch, and he was terrified for her. She'd said it didn't hurt, but...

Slowly, Mary nodded, speaking up in a tremulous voice. "After Mom died…I'd have these dreams. Nightmares. Every time I woke up, there were more. Then after a few weeks they just…all fell off."

Seto considered what the cause could be, absently running his fingers from the crook of her elbow down to the inside of her wrist. Mary shivered. "Are you having nightmares now?" he asked.

She nodded mutely, then added, "I think it might be a, um. A reaction. Like my body thinks I'm in danger, and tries to protect me..."

Seto's heart ached at the thought. He wanted her to feel safe, to know he would never let anything hurt her. And he wanted to assure her that he didn't find her disgusting in any way. Turning her arm in his hand, he bent to press his lips to that first scale, and heard her draw in a gasp of breath. The feeling of the coarse shape against his lips was strange, but not totally unwelcome. He lingered there for a second, mumbling into her skin, "If they keep you safe, I think they're wonderful."

Mary didn't seem convinced, somehow, so he kissed the next scale up, and her breath caught again. He worked his way along her arm, up until he reached the end of her pajama sleeve, then sat back on his heels, a little embarrassed.

Mary drew her arm in again, but this time she carried it close to her like it was a treasure, like his kisses were something precious to her. His cheeks warmed a little, and he cleared his throat.

They stared at each other for a moment, and Seto wondered if he'd gone too far. Then she was fumbling with the knot on the second bandage and holding out her other arm. "Do this one too?" she pleaded, and he was only too happy to oblige.

He kissed the back of her hand first, not because she had any scales there, but because it seemed right. Her fingers curled in his hand, and he rubbed his thumb against her knuckles, shooting her a comforting smile. Then he began to work his way up her arm, slow and careful, not wanting to miss a single scale. He had to show her that it was impossible for him to find something about her repulsive, no matter how odd or inhuman it was. Her strange traits were things he loved about her too, after all.

All too soon he reached her sleeve again, but as he released her hand and sat back again she was changing her position, pulling her legs up to her chest.

Her eyes looked glassy, but it didn't seem to be because of tears anymore. He realized after a second that she was fumbling with the leggings, and politely looked away as she pulled them off, tucking her dress between her legs so he could look back again.

There were small scales on her legs too, beginning at her ankles and thickest near her knees. Interestingly, they seemed to grow sparse again around her upper thighs, but by the time Seto's gaze climbed quite that high, he was having trouble focusing on that fact.

She was obviously expecting him to keep going, and Seto wondered what he'd gotten himself into. He wasn't going to back out now- and really, he didn't want to.

He lifted her ankle, and she almost tipped over, squeaking in surprise.

"Ha, sorry-" Well, that wasn't going to work. He was considering rolling onto his stomach to kiss her when she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, swinging them a little. She didn't look at him, her hands firmly holding the bunched-up hem of her dress between her thighs.

"Is that better?" She asked, and he could feel her embarrassment as though it was a tangible thing.

With a determined nod, Seto moved to kneel on the floor in front of her.

For a second time, he took her ankle gently in his hand, then looked back up at her for confirmation. Mary's face was red and she was breathing in short little puffs, her hair writhing around her and coiling against her shoulders. But she nodded, looking determined, and so he brushed his lips against the curve of her ankle, to the first scale he saw.

He made his way up her calf, pausing on her knee for quite some time, doing his best to keep track of which scales he'd kissed so far and which he hadn't. At some point, one of her hands cupped the back of his head, fingers threading through his short hair. She seemed impatient, tugging on his hair, but he didn't move on until he was certain he'd gotten them all. Then, he began to work his way up her thigh. She shifted her legs apart so he could kneel between them and reach the scales that scattered like constellations across her thigh.

Here, he went slow too, but not because there were too many scales to keep track of. Any second now, he expected her to pull away, tell him that was enough. Somehow, however, he reached where the bottom of her dress was bunched around her thighs, her hand folded tightly and twisting in the fabric.

Seto paused for a second to appraise the situation. It struck him that they looked very suspicious. If anyone were to walk in to her room just then, they'd see Mary sitting on the edge of the bed and him kneeling in front of her, his cheek leaned against her thigh. No one, least of all his siblings, would believe that he was just comforting her.

Mary was tugging on his hair again, pulling him towards her, and he realized with a start what she wanted.

"Mary, wait—" Seto protested, turning scarlet, and she paused in the process of rolling her skirt up further with her free hand. She seemed to be waiting for him to say something, but all he could manage was saying her name again, his throat dry.

"Please," she pleaded, and her hand on him was trembling.

If Mary wanted this, then so did he. Seto nodded, and cleared his throat so he could reply. "Alright."

Mary released his hair to pull her nightgown up and over her head, setting it down on the mattress next to her and leaving her almost naked. Between her legs, there was already a tiny wet spot darkening the fabric of her white underwear. She wasn't wearing a bra, and he could see that while the scales covered her shoulders and some even reached her collarbone, her breasts and stomach were completely bare. For all the time the two of them had spent together, he'd never seen her like this, and he found himself struck dumb and staring.

She squeezed her legs together with discomfort, and he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. "S-sorry Mary," he said with a little laugh, shifting to kneel more comfortably in front of her and hooking her knees onto his shoulders.

Mary let out a little whimper. "Please hurry up." Her thighs twitched again, trembling against his shoulders. With a deep breath, Seto moved forward, pressing his lips to the wet spot on her underwear. The noise she made sent a shiver down his back, and he fidgeted on his knees. Tentative and unsure, he rolled the flat of his tongue against her, and she keened again, one hand circling the back of his neck and the other clamped against her mouth in a vain attempt to stifle the noise. Seto greedily shifted closer, his mouth opening against her like he was kissing her there too, and the strange taste on his tongue didn't deter him at all. The fabric against his lips was soaked through by this point, and she was starting to get impatient, digging her heels into his back and trying to pull him closer.

But he pulled away, and she whined in disappointment. "Hang on," he said, giving her a reassuring smile. Her underwear was in the way at this point, and she helped him take it off, sliding it down over her hips and down her legs, where it dropped to the floor between his knees and was promptly forgotten. He looked up at her face, licking his lips nervously. Mary was a mess, her face flushed and her hair coiling back and forth on its own. He'd seen her hair shift when she was happy, but he'd never seen it thrashing like this before. It had to mean she was enjoying it, and the corner of his mouth curled up in a glad smile.

Seto curled his hands around her thighs, thumbs rubbing gentle circles, and leaned forward again. Careful and deliberate, he ran his tongue along her folds, and she trembled. He didn't really have any idea what he was doing, but Mary hardly seemed to care.

Growing bolder, he moved his mouth against her, and she tried to tug him closer, fidgeting and gasping. His nose brushed the cute patch of curly white hair between her legs.

He moved upwards and she yelped, jumping, when his clumsy exploration brushed his tongue against a certain spot. Understanding, he focused his efforts there, circling his tongue. She moaned, her hips shuddering under him.

It was hard for him to concentrate on what he was doing, his hands fumbling at her thigh. He was flushed and shaking, shifting his legs uncomfortably, just because of the noises she was making. He pushed his tongue into her and she gave a long moan that somehow became his name. The sound was too much for him, and one of his hands snuck down to between his legs, grinding the heel of his palm against the ache in his pajama pants.

He mumbled her name, unable to stop himself, and though she was too far gone to reply the vibrations made her writhe. He found the sensitive spot again, twirling his tongue against it once more, and she was gone.

"Setooo," she whined, squeezing her thighs around him and shuddering as she came. He kept his mouth on her until the end, until she grew still, except for her hand stroking his sweaty hair. Then he straightened up, the cramped muscles in his legs protesting. He still ached, but he was more concerned with making sure she was alright, climbing up next to her on the bed. Her shoulders were trembling, and she turned to look at him with a smile.

"You ok?" he murmured, and instead of answering she drew his face closer and kissed him, soft and sweet and open-mouthed. It wasn't an boldness he expected from Mary, but he supposed that she had nothing left to hide, lying beneath him naked and sweaty like this.

He lay next to her on the bed, feeling his heartbeat slow and return to normal. "We're gross," he said gently, still tasting her in his mouth. He didn't mind it, though, and he wondered if she'd been able to taste it too when she'd kissed him a moment ago.

"I know," she mumbled, making no attempt to get up.

"We should take a shower or something," he told her, reaching over and ghosting his fingers down her side, marveling at the soft skin and bumpy scales. He supposed he had them to thank for this.

"I know," she murmured again, but her eyelids were heavy, and so were his, and in the end they both fell asleep like that, cuddled against each other.

...

In the morning, Mary woke first, to warm arms around her and Seto's breath brushing against the skin of her neck. Her mind fuzzy with sleep, it took her several seconds to realize that for the first time in weeks she'd had no nightmares at all.

She sat up, shivering a little as his arms fell away from her, and she spotted her nightgown and underwear on the floor next to her bed. That wasn't all, however; hundreds of tiny black flecks were scattered across the floorboards, and when she shifted in surprise she realized more were in the blankets and sheets. One stuck to Seto's cheek, and with a tiny chuckle she picked it off, holding it up between forefinger and thumb.

It looked like she'd shed her scales sometime during the night.

Mary did her best to brush the scales off the mattress, letting them patter to the floor. They'd sweep them up later, but for now she was going back to sleep, to enjoy more sweet dreams and uninterrupted rest.

Snuggling back against Seto's chest, she couldn't hide a smile as he wrapped his arms around her again, seeming not to wake as he pulled her against his chest. She pressed a tiny kiss to the slip of skin that showed above the loose neck of his tshirt, marking the human boy as hers forever.

After all, if the scales came back, if her fears crowded at the edge of her mind again, Mary knew he'd help her chase them away, just like he always had, even when they met.


End file.
